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Eichner’s Book Focuses on How to Restore the Family American Dream
As the mother of three children, Maxine Eichner, Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law, has personal experience in facing the challenges that American families face in juggling work and parenting.
That knowledge has inspired not only Eichner’s focus on family law but her most recent book, The Free-Market Family: How the Market Crushed the American Dream (and How It Can Be Restored.) (Oxford University Press, 2020). In it, Eichner writes that American families are at a breaking point because of policy makers’ misguided belief that the free market alone best supports families.
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“I have long been interested in the way we in the U.S. think about the relationship between government and families,” says Eichner. “But I really started thinking about the impact of our free market system on families in 2008, when the Great Recession and the Occupy Wall Street movement occurred amid growing levels of economic inequality and insecurity.” Eichner’s book is rich with data and individual stories illustrating that American families are in jeopardy today, with more unstable families than any other wealthy democracy. “Society rises or falls based on the well-being of our families,” says Eichner. “Yet in the United States, when we think about rights, we think about liberty and equality but don’t think about the texture of our lives and how important relationships are within those lives.”
Eichner, who earned her PhD in political theory from UNC in 2006, says her book aims to expand the American conversation about the role of government in supporting family wellbeing, social bonds, and the importance of nurturing and caretaking. She believes that addressing these challenges isn’t the hard part. “There are commonsense and proven family policies that most other wealthy democracies now have: a monthly child benefit check; up to a year of paid parental leave for a new baby; universal high-quality preschool; laws that help parents limit their work hours; and, regulations that limit the economic insecurity and inequality that are undermining family stability,” she says. Eichner wants political leaders and community members to recognize that the difficulties U.S. families are having are not an inevitable product of market forces, globalization or industrialization. “This is a political failure on the part of our policy makers who haven’t created policies that would help families thrive,” she says. Interviews with families throughout the country put a human face on these issues. “One example I found particularly moving is the story of a poor mother in Charlotte who had her first child while in high school,” says Eichner. She notes that in many other wealthy countries, the mom would have been able to raise her child above the poverty line, as well as to have free high-quality daycare and pre-K. “Instead, she raised her son in deep poverty, in situations that were chaotic and in which he suffered abuse,” says Eichner. “She was only able to intermittently provide him with high-quality daycare and only after her son was put into foster care during a period of time in which they were homeless despite her best efforts and willingness to work.” Eichner says that the child suffered significant trauma.
“When I interviewed the mom, her son had just been sentenced, before he turned 21, to nine years for armed robbery,” she says. “We can’t know how he would have turned out in another country but his chances to lead a more productive life would have been far greater in any other developed country because of the support his family would have received.”
Eichner, who notes that family policies impact people at all ends of the economic spectrum, cites a young lawyer in Durham who was able to take only a couple of months of leave after the birth of her child.
“She spiraled down into such severe post-partum depression (PPD) that her husband realized his wife wasn’t making sense and needed to be institutionalized,” says Eichner. “It’s not that people in other countries don’t suffer PPD. The problem is that in the U.S. system, PPD is made significantly
worse by the absence of social supports and the expectation that mothers will go back to work shortly after giving birth.”
In her book, Eichner advocates what she calls “pro-family policies” adopted by other wealthy countries where the government actively seeks to ensure families get what they need to raise their children, including high minimum wage laws and public programs such as high-quality daycare.
“The term ‘American Dream’ used to stand for the idea that everyone could develop to their fullest stature and lead a rich, thriving life,” says Eichner. “For this to happen, we need a society in which children and families flourish.” Eichner’s book provides the blueprint to achieve this.
— Michele Lynn
OTHER FACULTY BOOKS
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Business Organization Law (5th edition)
West Academic, 2020 817 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1642424010
Gene R. Nichol Indecent Assembly: The North Carolina Legislature's Blueprint for the War on Democracy and Equality
Blair, 2020 224 pages
Top-Ranked Legal Writing Program Teaches Bar Success and Client Advocacy Carolina Law clinical associate professor Sara Warf ’06 has to persuade some 1L students who already have writing skills that the Research, Reasoning, Writing and Advocacy (RRWA) courses she teaches are essential to their legal education. But students soon agree. When they’re working the summer after their first year, “I get emails that say, ‘I use your class every day.’ That’s always gratifying,” Warf notes. Although other law classes are “deeply fundamental to being a lawyer,” Warf says, “ours is very hands-on, coming at it from a client’s point of view…The faculty is very invested in having students actually practice in a low-stakes environment without clients, and with lots of support and opportunity to reflect and to ask questions.” Students in the required two-semester RRWA program learn how to do basic legal research, write memos and briefs, and practice advocating to a court for clients in simulated projects. Some students, such as those doing pro bono work, use the skills they gain while they’re still 1Ls. “It’s key, especially when you’re starting law, to get the hang of researching, finding the law and synthesizing the law… You have to get good at presenting it in a way that’s useful for someone else,” Warf says. “That’s just general lawyering regardless of what students end up doing.” According to Craig Smith, assistant dean for the Writing and Learning Resources Center, many alumni say that what they practiced in the RRWA program “is what they now do all the time. This program really complements what they’re learning in other classes.” The RRWA program, in its ninth year, is highly regarded nationally. Carolina Law was ranked No. 7 in the legal writing specialty areas category of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools” 2021 edition. The is an increase of 11 spots from three years ago. Smith attributes the program’s success to several factors, including innovative, collaborative professors who pursue detailed course goals and give students frequent feedback. “It’s a proven way to teach students how to work as lawyers,” Smith says. “It’s what they have to be able to do to pass the bar exam and get the jobs they want.” The RRWA program’s relevance is reflected in the North Carolina bar exam, which in 2019 added a performance test. “It’s almost exactly what we have students doing in the program,” Smith says. Also key to RRWA is a sound structure with a consistent assessment process and uniform expectations for all students. “That’s very unusual anywhere,” Smith says. “We make sure students are performing, so everybody’s got to get over the same bar…That takes an amazing amount of cooperation among professors.” The cooperative spirit underpins the RRWA program as it supports student success and produces alumni who excel as lawyers. “We have a fantastic faculty committed to a systematic, programmatic way of doing things that makes all students and faculty in on this together and accountable,” Smith says. “That’s really progressive.” — Jessica Clarke
CENTER FOR BANKING AND FINANCE UPDATES
Perspectives from the Past
In early spring semester, adjunct Professor Eric Spitler ’85 hosted “Fireside Chats” with Diane Ellis (pictured above), director of the Division of Insurance & Research, FDIC, and Marty Gruenberg, director of the FDIC & former FDIC chair, to talk with students about current risks in the financial system and regulation since the 2008 crisis. When the pandemic hit, the center hosted a Zoom panel for Carolina Law students preparing to enter the work force. Eight attorneys discussed the effect of COVID-19 on the legal field and shared lessons from job hunting in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis.
New Faces
The Center for Banking and Finance welcomed Jennifer De La Rosa as director of business operations in January. De La Rosa supports the center’s 20+ annual programs, oversees sponsorship and works closely with director Lissa Broome.
Quarantertainment from the Center
We know you’re stuck at home, looking for good movies and books (or journals?). Here are our flick picks. The center hosted corporate- and financial-themed movie and pizza nights for banking law students, screening The Big Short (2015), Too Big to Fail (2012) and Working Girl (1988).
Volume 24 of the North Carolina Banking Institute Journal was published in March. Read it at scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncbi.
Center for Banking and Finance Upcoming Events
Financial Services Compliance Boot Camp October 27-28
Prosecutors and Politics Project: National Study of Prosecutor Elections How much of a choice do voters have about who will make important decisions in their communities? Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick and Carolina Law students in the Prosecutors and Politics Project released a report in January on their national study of elected prosecutors. Forty-five of the 50 states elect local prosecutors, who wield significant power in the criminal justice system. Their decisions about what charges to bring and what plea bargains to offer are essentially unreviewable in the courts. Instead, the system relies on voters to hold prosecutors accountable. Local elections provide a check on the power that prosecutors wield—at least in theory. But how does that check operate in practice? The Prosecutors and Politics Project, with generous support from the Vital Projects Fund and the Charles Koch Foundation, conducted a nationwide study of prosecutor elections. The first of its kind, the study gathered data from every jurisdiction that elects local prosecutors. An analysis of the data shows that voters are rarely given a choice between candidates. It also shows that the likelihood of having such a choice varies significantly across states, and it also appears to depend on the population within a particular district and whether an incumbent is running in the election.
Read the report for North Carolina and other states at go.unc.edu/An72J.
Center for Civil Rights: Planning Boards Inclusion Report After local elected bodies, such as boards of county commissioners and municipal boards, planning boards are often the most influential bodies in any given local jurisdiction. A report released in January by the UNC Center for Civil Rights studied county planning boards for 85 of the 100 counties in North Carolina and found that board member selection and powers vary from county to county, and demographics of boards often don't reflect those of their county. The findings reveal that there are no two county planning boards that are the same regarding their powers and duties. In most counties, people of color and women are significantly underrepresented on planning boards, relative to their respective proportions of each county’s population. The report was authored by Allen Buansi ’15, PepsiCo Foundation Civil Rights Fellow at the center. Read the full report at go.unc.edu/a5G6H
N.C. Poverty Research Fund: Hunger in High Point Report High Point is not what comes to mind when thinking about the hungriest metropolitan area in the United States, but research by Heather Hunt '02, Professor Gene Nichol and Carolina Law students shows many seniors and children in the Triad city struggle with food insecurity and hunger, and the community is working on a concerted anti-hunger effort.
Authors interviewed individuals and visited food pantry organizations fighting the hardship of hunger. Read their report published in December, "Surviving Through Together: Hunger, Poverty and Persistence in High Point, North Carolina," at go.unc.edu/Zc28C.
A Message from the Law Alumni Association
I hope that this note finds you and your family safe and healthy during this unprecedented time. Hopefully, this greeting from the Law Alumni Association (LAA) and the information enclosed will bring you a smile. Our Law Alumni Association leadership and board have been hard at work to build an active association. We would welcome your involvement in the LAA and our activities. For example, you can volunteer to serve on one of the LAA committees: Alumni Engagement Committee, Community Outreach Committee and Advancement Committee.
Getting involved is easy, rewarding and fun:
• GO to alumni events whether they’re Regional Alumni Club events, annual events at the law school or new programs being created to bring our alumni expertise to students.
• INVEST in the future of our great profession by giving annually to the school in a way that is meaningful to you.
• VOLUNTEER to get involved in LAA. • ENGAGE with the students. Alumni have the opportunity to be a part of LAA-sponsored events, participating with the Career Development Office with Career Night, mock interviews and on-campus interviews. There are opportunities to work closely with students through the Pro Bono Program, externship program and the clinics. The faculty also love to have alumni speak to their classes. We need you. We are proud of you. We want you to stay connected to our great law school, other alumni, faculty and our students. With the recent U.S. News & World Report ranking just released, Carolina Law is moving in the right direction, having jumped 18 spots in the last two years. We have always known the value of a Carolina Law degree and now others are taking notice. One of our alumni has been in the news lately. Longtime Professor Richard E. Myers II ’98 was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate to fill the longest-running vacancy in the federal judiciary, on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. His presence at the law school is greatly missed. Other alumni are also getting involved with the school on many levels. Nearly three-quarters of the attorneys who volunteer with the law school’s Pro Bono Program are alumni. In the externship program, there are currently 22 former externs that now supervise externs and this doesn’t include the numerous judicial clerks who were former externs. Over the past academic year, Carolina Law has had 41 alumni serving as adjunct professors and in the fall, the school will welcome Beth Grimes ’99, Todd Roessler ’01, Tracy Calder ’84, John Owen ’96, Ford Eubanks ’17, and Sara McIntyre ’14 as new adjuncts. Please consider lending your help, expertise and guidance to the Law Alumni Association to ensure we remain competitive with other law schools. If you would like to get more involved in the LAA or with the law school, please send me an email at kpopp@sidley.com or contact Carrie Clifford (director of alumni and donor relations) at carrie.clifford@unc.edu.
DONN YOUNG
KAREN POPP '85 PRESIDENT, UNC LAW ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PARTNER AND GLOBAL CO-LEADER OF WHITE COLLAR AND COMPLIANCE GROUP, SIDLEY AUSTIN, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Four recognized for their significant contributions to the legal field.
The UNC School of Law Alumni Association recognizes three exceptional graduates and one exemplary faculty member with leadership awards. The awards recognize members of the UNC School of Law community who embody the law school’s mission to serve the legal profession; the people and institutions of North Carolina; the nation; and the world with ethics and dedication to the cause of justice. The award recipients are: Doris R. Bray ’66 receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, The Honorable Robert “Bob” C. Hunter ’69 receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award, Brooks F. Jaffa ’12 receiving the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award, and Deborah R. Gerhardt receiving the Professor S. Elizabeth Gibson Award for Faculty Excellence. As of press time, the awards presentation has been postponed due to event restrictions related to COVID-19. Visit law.unc.edu/alumni/events for updates.
Phyllis Pickett ’82, N.C. General Assembly Lawyer
What’s the best way to work for more than a hundred bosses? For Phyllis Pickett ’82 it’s not a theoretical question. It requires “good legal and communication skills, being able to get along with people from all walks of life — and survival skills,” she says. Pickett has an integral role with the 170-member North Carolina General Assembly as a principal staff attorney in the legislative drafting division.
Since 1995, she has been immersed in the state appropriations process as a staff coordinator for legal matters affecting the state budget. Pickett heads a team of lawyers on the nonpartisan central staff who interface with fiscal analysts and executive branch officials to craft budget provisions. She works closely with the chairs of the House appropriations committees who develop annually the spending bills that fund all aspects of State government.
Pickett also drafts other legislation, focusing on areas as diverse as labor law, evidence and information technology. “I need to understand the whole range of legal issues surrounding topics I’m working on,” she says. Pickett says that she appreciates the challenge.
Pickett’s integrity and legal skills are highly regarded in Wake County and beyond. — which cited her impressive law career, bar involvement and community leadership. For decades, she has served on committees of the Wake County and Tenth Judicial District bars and held leadership positions with the North Carolina Bar Association and American Bar Association.
Pickett credits Carolina Law with her career success. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. Carolina Law gave me a solid legal foundation,” Pickett says, “including networking and other opportunities that have been augmented by the fact that I went to Carolina Law,” she says.
“I’m amazed by how much it costs to go to law school now,” says Pickett, a 1979 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate and James M. Johnson Scholar there. She has contributed to a Carolina Law scholarship established by the Class of ’82 and notes, “I support everything UNC can do to make education affordable.”
After 29 years at the General Assembly, of which some of her law school friends have been members, Pickett is energized by the new ideas newly elected legislators bring forward. She enjoys working with the law as it evolves. “My job is different every day. I learn something new all the time,” she says. “There’s a range of individuals who have been an inspiration. Every year has been more enriching.” She’s proud to be involved with bills that improve people’s lives. “What’s rewarding is the sum total of legislation that I’ve worked on that has had positive impacts on North Carolinians. I get to do that over and over,” she says. “That’s my biggest accomplishment, being part of making change that helps people.”
